Longing for happiness, peace and a normal life

Mamaskatch recounts the story of a Cree boy (me) growing up near Slave Lake. I am longing for happiness, peace and a normal life – something you might see in an indigenous version of Archie comics. Instead, I find myself immersed in situations of terror and tragedy – with my strong and tender mother transforming into the devil, my older brother growing into a flamboyant drag queen, and my one promising father figure catapulting me into a life of secrecy as he involves me in schemes of abuse. This abuse opens a cavern of questions about my gender identity, and the struggle – to know who I am or could be, without guilt. Mamaskatch moves at a blurring pace from the boreal forest of Alberta, to the Rocky Mountains, to the city (Calgary) and eventually to the west coast, with a side trip to Mexico. In Mamaskatch, at just the right time it seems, an angel appears, in the form of a mountain, a teacher, or a friend. During the writing of Mamaskatch, this continued. Betsy Warland nurtured me as a beginning writer. Then, Shaena Lambert helped me to take it all so much deeper. Barbara Pulling provided astute and gentle editing.